Pie Date! IKEA! Chinese New Year!
Peeps! It's time for an update, complete w/ pictures! And funny enough, it's Dean Winchester's birthday and part of my update is all about pie.
Basil Peach Pie, baby!
So I got this new cookbook in November, the third sister in the vegan baking series, "Vegan Pie in the Sky," and I wanted to do a trial run on several recipes. Now, most fruit pies are just naturally vegan, unless you use butter in your crust, which I never did. I was curious to see what kind of pies this book contained, and it did have a lot of fruit pies. But there were also faux cream pies and cheesecakes and such. Plus, my mum got me a new pie plate, tart plates, and springform pan for Christmas. The stage was thus set. taffimai came over to be a taste tester, as did our friend T and of course M. I made Basil Peach Pie, Manhattan Mud Pie and Chocolate Peanut Butter Tarts, utilizing all three new pans. Success! Sweet, nommy success! Taffy liked the peach and peanut butter best, M liked the Manhattan and peach best, T liked the peanut butter best and I liked, hrm, probably the peanut butter best. But the Manhattan was made almost entirely out of chocolate and booze, so it was pretty damn good. And I don't care for cooked fruit, really, but the peach had a good flavor. Pics:
We couldn't wait and just dug into the peach, or else it would have held together better. The mud pie was supposed to ooze chocolate all over the plate and maybe I had just had too much to drink, but I thought that meant the plate when I released the springform pan. It did not. It was a little goopy on top, but nowhere near the avalanche of booze-infused chocolate pudding I was expecting.
Note to self: do not fill tart pan to the edge w/ chocolate if you expect to get the chocolate out intact. Also: NOMNOMNOM!!!!
And then we went to IKEA the next day! M wanted to get something w/ counter space and storage for my cupcake business. I think she was just tired of tripping all over my crap. But I said cool beans, and we headed to IKEA and bought this little baby:
About half way through and the (mostly) finished product.
I say (mostly) b/c IKEA believes in not telling you that you'll have to sand and wax the countertop and waits for you to get home, look at their incomprehensible drawings, pull your hair out and admit defeat. And then top it all off be demanding sand, wax and oil. Kinky. Plus, neither one of us have arms that are long enough to reach the back of the thingy and stuff support pins in for the shelf, so we just put light stuff on that. I even laid on my back and lifted the shelf w/ my feet so M could push that pin in, but no dice. Some things overheard whilst we put this sucker together:
If your hands get tired, I can screw.
I think you're putting that in the wrong hole, b/c before I could feel the vibration in my boobs and now I'm just feeling it in my gut.
Could you please stop stripping?
The hole's too small; this calls for a more powerful screw.
Just line it up and shove it in.
Yeah. Then I went to Pittsburgh to see the lovely and talented amand_r. I also met the awesome arsenicjade. We got to be the sous chefs. This involved chopping and wrapping and eating. It was a good job. And then we ate a shit-ton of Chinese food at the actual party. Happy Year of the Dragon! Have some pics!!
Veggie dishes! Sort of! The first is zucchini w/ salted duck yolks and the second is cucumber and something else. Um. There was a lot of Pimm's.
Peking Duck! This was the best thing I ever ate! amand_r should be sainted for this dish. I ate so much. And got so distracted that I failed to take more food pics. Have some pics of her pets instead:
That would be Sasquatch, the handsomest kitty ever, and Grumpy, a GQMF hermit crab.
It was awesome hanging w/ my homeslice and Vivi. Vivi did Miss Blue's hair every day. :) I also still have multi-colored fingernails. For the time being.
It's getting late, and I'm wicked tired, so just one final set:
Why, yes, I did color a Cas fish and make him say 'Dean.' No I don't have a problem. Also in honor of Dean's b-day, my long-running favorite Dean screencap. Happy birthday, you veridian-eyed elder Winchester & Hunter! ;)
Basil Peach Pie, baby!
So I got this new cookbook in November, the third sister in the vegan baking series, "Vegan Pie in the Sky," and I wanted to do a trial run on several recipes. Now, most fruit pies are just naturally vegan, unless you use butter in your crust, which I never did. I was curious to see what kind of pies this book contained, and it did have a lot of fruit pies. But there were also faux cream pies and cheesecakes and such. Plus, my mum got me a new pie plate, tart plates, and springform pan for Christmas. The stage was thus set. taffimai came over to be a taste tester, as did our friend T and of course M. I made Basil Peach Pie, Manhattan Mud Pie and Chocolate Peanut Butter Tarts, utilizing all three new pans. Success! Sweet, nommy success! Taffy liked the peach and peanut butter best, M liked the Manhattan and peach best, T liked the peanut butter best and I liked, hrm, probably the peanut butter best. But the Manhattan was made almost entirely out of chocolate and booze, so it was pretty damn good. And I don't care for cooked fruit, really, but the peach had a good flavor. Pics:
We couldn't wait and just dug into the peach, or else it would have held together better. The mud pie was supposed to ooze chocolate all over the plate and maybe I had just had too much to drink, but I thought that meant the plate when I released the springform pan. It did not. It was a little goopy on top, but nowhere near the avalanche of booze-infused chocolate pudding I was expecting.
Note to self: do not fill tart pan to the edge w/ chocolate if you expect to get the chocolate out intact. Also: NOMNOMNOM!!!!
And then we went to IKEA the next day! M wanted to get something w/ counter space and storage for my cupcake business. I think she was just tired of tripping all over my crap. But I said cool beans, and we headed to IKEA and bought this little baby:
About half way through and the (mostly) finished product.
I say (mostly) b/c IKEA believes in not telling you that you'll have to sand and wax the countertop and waits for you to get home, look at their incomprehensible drawings, pull your hair out and admit defeat. And then top it all off be demanding sand, wax and oil. Kinky. Plus, neither one of us have arms that are long enough to reach the back of the thingy and stuff support pins in for the shelf, so we just put light stuff on that. I even laid on my back and lifted the shelf w/ my feet so M could push that pin in, but no dice. Some things overheard whilst we put this sucker together:
If your hands get tired, I can screw.
I think you're putting that in the wrong hole, b/c before I could feel the vibration in my boobs and now I'm just feeling it in my gut.
Could you please stop stripping?
The hole's too small; this calls for a more powerful screw.
Just line it up and shove it in.
Yeah. Then I went to Pittsburgh to see the lovely and talented amand_r. I also met the awesome arsenicjade. We got to be the sous chefs. This involved chopping and wrapping and eating. It was a good job. And then we ate a shit-ton of Chinese food at the actual party. Happy Year of the Dragon! Have some pics!!
Veggie dishes! Sort of! The first is zucchini w/ salted duck yolks and the second is cucumber and something else. Um. There was a lot of Pimm's.
Peking Duck! This was the best thing I ever ate! amand_r should be sainted for this dish. I ate so much. And got so distracted that I failed to take more food pics. Have some pics of her pets instead:
That would be Sasquatch, the handsomest kitty ever, and Grumpy, a GQMF hermit crab.
It was awesome hanging w/ my homeslice and Vivi. Vivi did Miss Blue's hair every day. :) I also still have multi-colored fingernails. For the time being.
It's getting late, and I'm wicked tired, so just one final set:
Why, yes, I did color a Cas fish and make him say 'Dean.' No I don't have a problem. Also in honor of Dean's b-day, my long-running favorite Dean screencap. Happy birthday, you veridian-eyed elder Winchester & Hunter! ;)